================================================
MAPS-L ** MAPS-L ** MAPS-L ** MAPS-L ** MAPS-L
================================================
Subject: More on NE map thefts
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2005
From: [log in to unmask]
To: [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask]
In case you are keeping up with this...
Please see below.
Alice C. Hudson
Chief, Map Division
The Humanities and Social Sciences Library
The New York Public Library
5th Avenue & 42nd Street, Room 117
New York, NY 10018-2788
------> [Room 121, February - December 2005]
[log in to unmask]; 212-930-0589; fax 212-930-0027
http://nypl.org/research/chss/map/map.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The true meaning of life is to plant trees,
under whose shade you do not expect to sit.
- Nelson Henderson
----- Forwarded by ahudson/MHT/Nypl on 07/22/2005 05:29 PM -----
"CARMIN Jim"
<[log in to unmask] To: Multiple
recipients of list
g>
<[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: cc:
[log in to unmask] Subject:
[EXLIBRIS:30485] More on NE map thefts
erkeley.edu
07/22/2005 01:31
PM
Please respond to
exlibris
From: http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=116885
Man with Sebec ties charged in map thefts
Friday, July 22, 2005 - Bangor Daily News
SEBEC - An international dealer in antique maps and atlases who has ties
to Sebec is expected to appear next month in a Connecticut higher court
for the alleged theft of maps valued at more than $50,000 from the
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University.
Edward Forbes Smiley III, 49, of Edgartown, Mass., on Martha's Vineyard,
owns a summer home on Sebec Lake. He also owns the Sebec Village Shops,
which houses a restaurant, a general store and the town's post office.
Smiley was charged with stealing three irreplaceable maps, including a
rare map of early New England. He was arrested in June by Connecticut
authorities.
A Web site maintained by Smiley notes that he has worked for collectors
and institutions, helping them build collections of early maps and
atlases relating to the discovery and settlement of North America for 25
years from offices in New York City and Martha's Vineyard.
"We buy worldwide very aggressively, and sell very actively to dealers
and collectors," Smiley's Web site states. The Web site indicates that
Smiley recently sold maps of New Netherlands, New England, Virginia and
Maryland and had for sale maps of New England and of America, all dating
back to the 17th century.
A call for comment made Thursday to Smiley's home in Martha's Vineyard
was not returned nor could Smiley be reached at his Sebec cottage. An
employee at the Sebec Village Shops said she thought Smiley still was in
Massachusetts.
The Sebec business was opened several years ago to benefit local
residents, according to its Web site, but not all relations have been
smooth, especially with a neighboring marina-ice cream business. Smiley
contested the issuance of a permit to the competing business, but it was
upheld in court, according to published reports.
According to the Web site for the Sebec business, "The vision of E.
Forbes Smiley, the business owner, was to contribute to the economy as
well as the quality of life in Sebec. He has developed a business
managed by local residents with the flexibility to incorporate their own
ideas and talents. These businesses have been appreciated and enjoyed by
many in the area."
"He was a wonderful man who is giving a gift to the town of Sebec in
creating the restaurant down in the village," said Elizabeth Ellis, a
member of the Sebec Historical Society, of which Smiley is an "honored
member."
"I feel like this is a very unfortunate thing," she said. "I just know
how he treated the people of Sebec."
It was an X-Acto knife blade found on a reading room floor of the Yale
University library that led to Smiley's apprehension, according to
Maxine Wilensky, Connecticut senior assistant state's attorney. She said
Thursday that Smiley had been charged with three counts of larceny in
the first degree because the value of the items exceeded $10,000. Bail
was set for Smiley at $175,000, according to published reports.
Wilensky said Smiley will make his initial court appearance on the
charges Aug. 9 in Connecticut Part A Court in Hartford. If convicted,
Smiley could face 20 years in prison on each count, she said.
As a result of the charges, the FBI issued an alert to institutions
holding rare maps in their collections to review their records and
collections as soon as possible to determine whether Smiley reviewed
books or maps in their possession and to determine whether any maps were
believed missing. The FBI has been in contact with certain other rare
book libraries and learned that those institutions are finding rare maps
missing from volumes that Smiley had viewed, according to the alert.
David Nutty, director of university libraries at the University of
Southern Maine, which has one of the larger map collections in northern
New England, acknowledged Thursday that he had received the FBI alert.
"We are familiar with him," Nutty said of Smiley, who has visited the
university's libraries. In addition, the library has used Smiley's
services to purchase items, he said Thursday.
Nutty said library officials had done a thorough inspection of its
materials and found nothing missing, nor have they purchased any
materials taken from another institution.
Bill Cook, local historian of special collections at Bangor Public
Library, said Thursday that he had not received an FBI alert about
Smiley. "I wish we had known about the FBI alert," Cook said, adding
that the library does have a map collection.
According to an affidavit filed in Connecticut Superior Court, a Yale
librarian picked a knife blade from the floor and alerted her
supervisor, who toured the room and spotted a man poring over rare maps.
Officials checked the library's register and identified the man as
Smiley. After learning his identity, a library official checked the
Internet and discovered that Smiley was a dealer in rare maps, according
to the affidavit.
The Beinecke library's head of public services then called Yale's other
library, Sterling Memorial, and discovered that Smiley was a suspect in
another alleged theft of rare documents that was never reported because
of lack of proof, the affidavit stated.
Library officials placed Smiley under video surveillance while police
watched his actions. When Smiley allegedly was observed fidgeting with
the inside pocket of his jacket, police were called.
Detective Martin Buonfiglio of the Yale University Police Department
said in the affidavit that he followed Smiley after he left the library
and confronted him after he went into the British Arts Museum. When
Buonfiglio asked whether the X-Acto blade was his, Smiley allegedly
became very nervous and replied, "Yes, it is. I must have dropped it, I
have a cold."
Smiley reportedly gave Buonfiglio permission to inspect the contents of
his briefcase, where Buonfiglio found several rare maps and documents.
Smiley reportedly told authorities that the maps were his and that he
took them to the library to compare the quality of his maps to the
quality of the library's maps.
One of the maps in Smiley's possession reportedly was taken from a book
called "Advertisements for the Unexperienced Planters of New England."
Library officials confirmed that the 1614 map, which was described as
having a portrait of Capt. John Smith, founder of Jamestown, and valued
at about $50,000, was missing.
Other maps that Smiley had in his possession were valued at more than
$876,000, according to the affidavit.
Library officials, after matching records of what Smiley had inspected
on June 8, confirmed that three of the maps allegedly had been stolen
from the library by Smiley on that day, the affidavit stated.
Diana Bowley
Jim Carmin
John Wilson Room Librarian
Multnomah County Library
Room 2M-C
801 SW 10th Ave.
Portland, OR 97205
503-988-6287 (phone)
503-988-5226 (fax)
[log in to unmask]
|
